Community Tasting Note

• Francois Le Mouel Likes this wine: 93 points

  March 24, 2022 - Deep purple in colour; very young in appearance. Nose of medium intensity, with blackberries and raspberries and notes of whites pepper; not the most complex. Much more interesting on the palate. Tannins and alcohol are quite present (slightly hot on the finish), with high intensity aromas of white pepper, notes of pyrazines and toast. In the end a very good wine, sold at the wrong price. Black Hills and Lariana are mastering the art of Carménère and at a MUCH lower price. Keep in mind that this is super young and it will certainly improve over the next few years. I'll cellar a few bottles to see how it evolves.
  
  Ok, I don't do this often, but the wine changed dramatically after 2-3 hours in the decanter. i got an explosion of aromas on the nose and the palate. Three words if you open a bottle now...decant, decant and decant!! Increasing my score from 91 to 93 points.

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3 Comments

• Vino Loco commented:

  3/26/22, 5:41 PM - Great note as always Francois!
  
  Lariana is my favourite Carm from BC. I find the Black Hills' Carm is too green pepper forward. I also recently bought a bottle of the 2018 Carmenere from Moon Curser but haven't tried it.
  
  And agree with you on the price point - on all of Phantom Creek's wines. Keep the notes coming!

• Francois Le Mouel commented:

  3/28/22, 5:59 AM - I agree with you. With the increased Carménère production in recent years at Black Hills, I feel the wine is not at the very high quality level it used to be a few vintages ago (but still great based on my taste, I appreciate a low dose of pyrazines in some wines). Therefore, Lariana is now at the top of the Carménère quality pyramide in the Valley...and at a lower price.
  
  As for Moon Curser, I'm sure you'll like it (always liked their wines), but it's not as appealing than the other two IMHO...a more simple version of what Carménère can deliver in the Okanagan.

• dilbert64 commented:

  3/31/22, 11:58 PM - Great review Francois. Phantom Creek is a beautiful place to visit and sit, but I find their wines a bit expensive for the quality compare to what you would get from Lariana and Black Hills (we are member of both). I also really like wines from Vanessa. Too bad Vanessa doesn't make a Carmenere.

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